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Showing posts from August, 2024

i think i know, but i don't know why

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questions are the answers you might need A sermon on the preacher's hymn to time's timelessness : In high school, my favorite band was Oasis . I’m sure you’ve heard them. In the 90s, they were basically inescapable . iTunes tells me their most popular songs are Wonderwall , Don’t Look Back in Anger , and Champaign Supernova . And that seems about right. Unless you were living under a rock , you must have heard at least one of those songs a time or two.   As for me , I’ve listened to those songs many a time! Like many people of a certain age, I have an overestimation of the music of my youth. And there’s a version of this sermon where I tell you all about Oasis, too! But suffice it to say, the thing that made Oasis so compelling is the very same thing that also made them so unstable !   Oasis was fronted by two working -class brothers . When they hit it big , they burnt through their money like a couple of teenagers who discovered a fortune —which is more or less exact

as the rock bears the weather

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not a lot, just forever A sermon on some initial conclusions of Qoheleth : I know what the Quester is talking about in today’s passage. I have dyslexia . Now, dyslexia is relatively common , so you may already know a thing or two about it. But once, when I was talking to friends, I said numbers, letters, and words don’t sit still in my head. They move around. I can’t just mentally keep track of them. Anyway, I’ve been told that’s not a bad description. Blessedly , though, I was diagnosed with dyslexia early . Of course, this was before IEPs. But my teachers were made to understand my situation. And many of them took time to help me learn the material, too. Nevertheless , school was mostly a humbling experience. There was no way standardized tests were going to go well for me. Most of the time, it just takes me longer to get my head around something. Given that, it was almost inevitable I would fall behind .   …But here’s the thing about dyslexia: once you learn something, you’

everyone thinks they're going the wrong way

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but they're looking at their maps all wrong A sermon on the intro to Ecclesiastes : Ecclesiastes has a reputation . Doesn’t it? It’s not a fun read. It’s pessimistic . And it barely even seems religious at all! All in all, Ecclesiastes and passages like this one are a bit intimidating . Aren’t they? But that needn’t be the case. Ecclesiastes doesn’t necessarily undermine the faith. In fact, Ecclesiastes might even strengthen yours . No matter what, though, what Ecclesiastes has to say is as plain as day . It’s as plain as day . For instance, something as trite as the Rocky franchise perfectly illustrates the point “the Quester” wants to make in today’s passage. That’s right, Rocky . And just out of curiosity, * who here has seen Rocky? * Raise your hand if you’ve seen it, please. Ok. Thank you.   Even if you haven’t seen Rocky, I bet you know its premise. Don’t you? The young and a little directionless Rocky gets the chance of a lifetime when the reining champion , Apollo